This article discusses how major life events often are linked to certain seasons or months of the calendar. The ups and downs of the nation are, more than we think, determined by the calendar. As the months roll by, it sets our moods, our behaviours and even the time when we are most likely to be born and to die. Canadian couples in the baby-making business love to cozy up as the late fall turns to early winter. It must be conducive to getting it on for many people, because more Canadian babies are born in July, nine months later, than in any other month -- some 29,000 of them out of a total of nearly 330,000 in 2002. Statistics Canada figures also indicate that the second most popular birth month is September (December snogging) at nearly 29,000. Winter is the season of mourning. In 2002, again courtesy of StatsCan, nearly 224,000 of us died, with the months of January, March and December (roughly 20,000 per month) leading the morbidity sweepstakes. Suicide peaks in the spring, says Dr. Robert Levitan, a psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. That's because after a long, dark winter of the soul, those who suffer from severe depression begin to feel better in the springtime, finding that extra little bit of energy they need to do themselves in. Murder, meanwhile, has its own special time. We are most likely to be killed during the dog days of August when temperatures and tempers rise. Not surprisingly, says Gregory Klump, chief economist for the 76,000-member Canadian Real Estate Association in Ottawa, home buying is seasonally driven in Canada. Crank up the polka tunes and forget about the likelihood of bad endings -- August is wedding reception time. Sexual assaults most often occur in June, according to the Centre for Justice Statistics, using data from 69 police departments that account for roughly half of the national volume. So, perhaps we are ruled by the sun, the seasons and the weather more than we ever knew.